The Report

The Report centers around Shirley, a woman that has been traumatized and is filling out a police report.

Submitted:Mar 21, 2010
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The Report

Charles Lee McCabe

Long/Short Media

"My name is Shirley, and I really don't know where to begin." the
young woman sat at the desk on the verge of tears. She had
obviously been traumatized, but the man taking her statement was
yet to hear the details of the horrific evening that led to this
point.

"There were three of us," Shirley continued, "and we went to
Lynda's uncle's place for the weekend. It was actually Angie's
idea to get out of town for a little while. She had just broken
up with her latest boyfriend and needed some time away. Being
just about her only friends, we were the ones that had to take
her.

"Lynda had been the only one that had been up to the cabin
before, and even she admitted that it had been years since she
had been there. When we got there, we got out of the car and took
a look around. It was a very scenic spot, and it appeared to be
the most serene spot on the planet. That is, until we went around
the cabin and saw the bones. At first, they looked like human
bones, but we decided that they were probably from a large deer.
Now, I'm not so sure.

"We went back to the car, got our stuff, and headed inside where
we found a neat little cabin looking just the way you would
expect one to look. Wooden everything. No phone or television.
Tub instead of a shower. Not even a lock on the front door.
Honestly, I was just glad that there weren't heads on the walls.
There were three bedrooms, luckily, and we soon decided who would
sleep where. Before dark we decided that we wanted to build a
fire, so of course we went out to find some wood, and that was
when we first heard the laughter. It was getting on towards the
evening and the sun had gone down, but it wasn't dark yet. It was
very high pitched, that laughter, and seemed to be coming from
everywhere. I know how crazy that sounds, but it really did seem
to be coming from everywhere at once. Then, just as suddenly as
it had begun, it stopped. We each had a good arm load of wood, so
we decided it was as good a time as any to head back to the
cabin.

"We had just got back to the cabin, closed the door, and unloaded
the wood when it started to rain." Shirley stopped talking for a
moment, and looked around the station. She noticed that, with the
exception of a man in one of the holding cells, she was alone in
the station with the man that was taking her report. She took a
moment to get a good look at him. When she had come in to make
her report, he had quietly asked her to have a seat and hadn't
said much since. He had his hat pulled down on his head, almost
as if he were trying to keep it from blowing away, but that
couldn't be, not indoors. When she had looked around, she had
noticed the man in the cell. He was laying with a blanket half on
him. It also looked like he had spilled some coffee or other dark
liquid as he was falling asleep. She guessed she was looking at
the drunk tank, but in the dim light it was hard to be sure. She
decided to continue her tale, no matter how hard it was going to
be.

"I know this sounds like a made-up story, with all the usual
elements; three girls on their own in the middle of the woods,
disturbing sounds coming out of the woods, and even rain at
night, but I can tell you that this horror was real. It was
getting close to midnight, and the fire was starting to lower a
bit, when we heard a banging on the side of the cabin. With the
first thud, we all jumped, but with the second and third we
decided that it was just a branch banging against the side. We
could even remember seeing a few dead-fall branches hanging from
trees that were close to the cabin. We were just going to leave
it at that, until one of them hit the window and nearly busted
it. Lynda said that since technically she was the host, she would
go out in the muck and tear down the branch before it shattered
the window. We had gotten over our scare from earlier, and had
attributed it to nothing more than mountain cats. We heard they
can make almost human like noises.

"Anyway, she went outside and she got to the branch. We saw her
from the window. She pulled the branch down, and everything
seemed okay. However, after she left our sight, we heard another
bang against the cabin. This one was much louder, and it seemed
to come from where she would have been. We waited for her to come
back in, but five minutes passed and nothing. We were about to go
out and look for her when we heard that maniacal laughter again.
It seemed to be coming from where we heard that last thud. At
that, we ran out to find Lynda. I mean, how could we not? What we
saw as we turned the corner of the cabin froze us in our tracks.
Lynda was lying against the side of the cabin, covered in blood,
and even that part of the wall was covered in blood. We could see
where part of her neck was ripped off, and we could see that
there was still blood pouring from the wound. It was then that we
heard the laughter again, but it was farther off. We tore our
eyes from the scene of our friend's murder and saw a man off in
the distance. We couldn't see him too well, but he was bald. I am
sorry, but that was the only time I saw him. Not even when Angie…
I'm sorry, I am getting ahead of myself.

"When we saw the bald guy, we ran back into the cabin. I wish we
could have brought Lynda back in, but we weren't going to risk
her fate. I know how horrible that sounds, but it's the truth. We
got back in the cabin, and then remembered that there was no lock
on the door. We couldn't even hide in any of the bedrooms because
there were no locks on any of the doors! We were frantic. We
could either stay in the cabin and risk that guy coming in on us,
or we could make a run for the car, which was a good twenty feet
away. After a few minutes, we decided to try for the car. Since I
was faster than Angie, I decided I would run for the car and
bring it up to the cabin in order for her to get in. I took a
piece of wood from the wood pile. I just needed to have something
that I could use to beat that maniac back with in case he tried
something.

"I went running for the car and made it with no problem. Given
how that went, I wish Angie would have just run with me. By the
time I got the car started and the lights on, I could see the
front door of the cabin standing open. I knew this wasn't part of
the plan, but I thought she may have left it open in order to
have a clear field when she made her run for the car. As I pulled
the car in close to the cabin, I saw that that wasn't the case.
There was blood on the porch, and there was blood on the inside
of the front windows. I could also hear that freak laughing from
inside. As the realization struck that both of my best friends
had just been killed within the space of an hour, I got the car
going and got the hell away from there!

"So, here I am, half out of my mind with grief, just about blind
from crying, and filing a police report. I really hope you don't
think I'm crazy. I want you to catch the freak that killed my
friends!" With that, Shirley fell quiet. She took a deep breath,
held it, and then let it go. She got up and decided to walk
around. Her walk around the station took her close to the drunk
tank a couple of times, but at first she was too lost in her own
thoughts to pay much attention to it. However, after a few
minutes of walking in circles, she started paying attention to
her surroundings. With the man still typing up her report, for
she could hear him at the other end of the room, she looked a bit
closer at the man in the cell. The liquid that she had noticed
earlier wasn't brown like she first thought, but a dark maroon.
She also noticed a familiar set of marks on his neck. It was with
this realization that another one came: she could no longer hear
the man at the other end of the room. She didn't have time to
scream when the laughter began right behind her. The last thing
she saw was the gleam of a bald head out of the corner of her eye
as she felt needles of pain in her neck.